160 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. 11. 



tears of the sorrowing-, and in producing compassion for the helpless and 

 suffering, has it not been carrying into practice the precepts of its founder^ 

 and elevating humanity itself by teaching the common brotherhood of 

 man ? 



The particular laws which I ask you to consider, are those having for 

 their objects; The preservation and protection of infants; The support of 

 the poor ; The establishment of hospitals for the sick and the incurable ; 

 The encouragement of the emancipation of slaves ; The prohibition of 

 gladiatorial contests ; And the mitigation of punishments. 



To this audience I need scarcely say that all these are duties inculcated 

 by our religion. We are told that children are a heritage of the Lord. 

 The want of them was deemed the greatest privation. Give me children 

 or else I die, said the Hebrew wife. They were esteemed the most 

 precious blessings. The grand old prophet, while he thought it possible 

 for a mother to forget her sucking child, yet places it next to that 

 impossible thing that God should forget his people. And we can have 

 no higher idea of the value, the sanctity of children, and the tenderness 

 with which they should be treated, than was given by our Lord himself, 

 when he would not suffer them to be removed, but took them in his arms 

 and blessed them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. 



The poor shall never cease out of the land, therefore, thou shalt open 

 thy hand wide unto thy brother, to the poor, and to the needy in thy land. 

 We are also directed to judge righteously, to plead the cause of the poor 

 and needy. One of the transgressions for which punishment would not 

 be turned away, was selling the poor for a pair of shoes. 



The general duty of compassion to the poor and suffering is ex- 

 emplified in the account of the last judgment when the Lord shall say 

 unto the wicked, " I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat : I was 

 thirsty and ye gave me no drink ; I was a stranger and ye took me not 

 in ; naked and ye clothed me not ; sick and in prison and ye visited me 

 not. And inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these my 

 brethren ye did it not to me." 



Let us now see with what these principles had to contend. 



The Romans had long been renowned for their supremacy in the arts 

 of peace as well as of war — and they attained such a high degree of 

 intellectual civilization as has perhaps never been surpassed. They did 

 not excel the Greeks in the politer arts, music, sculpture, painting and 

 poetry; indeed they affected to treat them with some disdain, claiming 

 that their mission was to give laws to subject nations. In this respect 

 their pre-eminence was just ; no system of laws has ever been devised 



